Know Nothings

The Know Nothings, formally known as the American Party, was a far-right political party in the United States that existed from 1844 to 1860. The party believed in American Protestant nationalism, and it opposed Catholic immigration from Germany and Ireland during the 1840s and 1850s. The name of the party came from its motto, "I know nothing but my country, my whole country, and nothing but my country," and it opposed immigration and naturalization, believing that Protestant Americans were superior to the immigrants entering the country. The party was responsible for several violent acts, including the tar-and-feathering of a Catholic priest and the burning of a church in Maine, election violence in Baltimore from 1856 to 1858, and 1855 riots in Louisville, Kentucky. From 1854 to 1856, the party was very powerful in politics after splitting from the American Whig Party, with Millard Fillmore being nominated in the 1856 presidential election. The party collapsed due to sitting on the fence about the slavery issue, and the party dissolved in 1860.